What Was Gone: New Sparks, Old Issues
by Treehugger31
Summary: Old sparks, new sparks, missing sparks, found sparks, broken and rekindled bonds. When two Autobot spy's return from an extended mission on board the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis. Can the team learn to trust them and accept the hidden bonds both old and new?
1. Prologue

**New Sparks, Old Issues**

**Prologue**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Transformers: Prime, just my own OCs and the basic plot.**

**A/N: Welcome to my new story! This is my first Transformers Prime story but I have been on this site for a while and have posted a bit but not as much as I have wanted. I promise I am going to start pushing myself to get more done and actually post it instead of letting it collect dust on my computer's hard drive... Anyway if you have read my other story's you can probably see that I am awful at updating, I will try to get a chapter up every second week or so but no promises.**

**Anyway the title of this story is only temporary until I think of one that is better.**

**Also I do not have a beta for this story so all mistakes are mine, no one else to blame except for me, myself, and I.**

**Warning: Light description of injury, there is a bit of romance in this story but only of the kissing variety.**

**Word count: 996**

_*word*-_ Flashback

Talk_ talk talk talk _talk talk- Thoughts

~Hi, I am word(s)~-Any bond communication

**More words- **Comm.

{So many words}- Written on screens, data pads, books

* * *

The quiet pitter-patter of tiny glitch-mice pedes echoed in the eerily silent cell. The dull gray organic-metal vermin scurried across the floor, their tiny processors barely registering the sticky purple substance that covered the floor and coated their paws nor the nearly overpowering stench of pain, fear, and spilt cybertronian fluids.

Golden optics flickered online as a pained groan forced its way out of an equally tortured vocaliser causing the glitch-mice to freeze mid step.

The large navy blue mech shifted, ignoring the energon cuffs binding his wrists in front of him, forcing his aching frame off the floor and into a sitting position against the cold metal wall. The screech of metal sent the many glitch-mice scurrying to the far corners of the cell where the huddled in groups, watching their large cell mate.

The sound of rattling metal rang through the still air as the mech trembled with exhaustion and pain, simple things like lifting a servo keeping his optic online more difficult than they should be.

He off lined his optic, letting his helm loll back against the wall supporting him as his processor sluggishly recalled what happened to get him tossed in the brig.

The last thing he really remembered was sitting in the _Nemesis_, cleaning and polishing his hammers and receiving a frantic comm. from his mate before static suddenly filled his audios and the frequency was cut off. Thinking something terrible must have happened to his bondmate, he leapt to his pedes, intent on rushing to his their shared quarters. He would have to, if his systems hadn't suddenly glitched, each one filling with static one by one and crashing in quick succession until only vital life systems were left running and everything went dark.

His frame jerked, optic powering on with a start as his audios picked up a faint moan.

The large navy blue mech slowly twisted to the side, his spark filling with dread as his optics fell on a crumpled red form at the other side of the cell.

Panic soon pushed its way in with the pain and dread as he recognized his mates usually glossy, now dull and scratched, red finish. It only took his sluggish processor a moment to fully process what his optic was feeding it, and when it did the single gold orb widened in horror.

The mech scrambled unsteadily to his pedes, his sudden movement caused some of the braver (stupider) glitch-mice to scurry back to the dark corners from where they had ventured from. Stumbling over his feet, he made his way to the prone form.

Wiper fluid tears filled his optics as he fell to his knees, gently rolling the limp figure over and carefully cradling him against his chest. The cuffs on his wrist joints making it difficult but he managed with some carful maneuvering.

Venting deeply, Breakdown pushed aside the growing panic and focused on the faint presence brushing against his spark while he lightly caressed a pale cheek with the back of his fingers.

The large mech nearly sobbed in relief when he felt the steady presence pulsing through the bond signifying that the ruby mech was in a medical induced statis caused by his injuries. While still dangerous, a medical statis would give a mechs self-repair systems time to heal; being in one while said mech was still bleeding out with no form of energon intake was not a good idea.

Breakdown shifted his mate to lay on the cleanest part of floor he could find before leaning back to take stock of the various injuries' littering the red battered frame. Not having any of the proper medical tools needed, the only real repairs he could do were concentrate his internal heating to his fingers and pinch shut the broken energon lines.

Leaning back once again, the former wreaker winced as his own injuries pulled. Energon dripped down his chest plates as wounds fixed by self-repair tore and reopened.

Running a self-diagnostic, Breakdown determined that none of his injuries were immediately fatal, brushed aside the red warnings that popped up on his HUD and went to work sealing what he could reach of his own leaking lines.

Finished repairing what he was able to, he leaned back onto his servos and frowned as he felt a sticky substance coating the palm of his servo. Lifting his servo in front of his face, the dim glow of his one optic reflected off the neon red fluid covering his servo.

The large blue mech cursed softly as he rolled the smaller mech gently onto his side. He cursed again when he saw the ruptured lines running vertically up his back.

He reheated his fingers and pinched the first dripping line he could reach while accessing his Comm.

Only to find access to both private and public Comm. frequency's deactivated. A quick check revealed all weapons offline as well, neither was very surprising.

Breakdown could feel the spark next to his own getting weaker, its already erratic pulses even more unsteady that just a few click before. He shuddered slightly and attempted to wrap the weakened spark in his presence, tried to synch its pulses with his own.

It worked, slowly he could feel the erratic beat grow slightly more steady.

Knockout needed medical attention from a real medic, not some field trained, medical assistant, ex-wreaker.

A new pop-up appeared on his HUD display, this one plane black and white. Someone was pinging him with an encrypted private Comm. channel.

Understandably hesitant to accept, Breakdown took a closer look at the message, carefully studying the encrypted codes and programming.

Breakdown could have sobbed with relief when he recognized the basic underlying code. Instead he took a few moments to compose himself and fixed his gaze on the slack, energon stained faceplates before accepting the call, **No time to explain what happened, we need to leave right now, it's an emergency. HE knows.**

* * *

**A/N: So how was it? I wrote the last part while I was on March break sick with Strep throat (what a great break) so I am not sure how well written it is, sorry. Again I am not sure when I will be posting the next chapter; I want to get all the personality's right (even if Breakdown and Knock Out will both be a bit OOC) but I will try with regular updates, probably every two weeks or so… maybe… hopefully… Lucky for you I have the first page and a half hand written of the next chapter, considering this was 4 and a half written by hand a update next weekend is looking pretty good.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter one**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Transformers: Prime, just my own OCs and the basic plot.**

**A/N: Well this was supposed to be up two weeks ago but I got swamped by homework and assignments so was a bit late, hopefully next one will be up not this weekend but the next one.**

**Warning: Nothing for this chap besides light mentions of injuries.**

**Word count: 2,299 words, 11 pages hand written and 4.5 typed**

*word*- Flashback

_Talk talk talk talk talk talk_- Thoughts

~Hi, I am word(s)~- Any bond communication

**More words**- Comm.

{So many words}- Written on screens, data pads, books

* * *

"The distress beacon is coming from the other side of that hill." Ratchet waved the scanner in his servo slowly back and forth in front of him before pointing it in the direction the energy levels were strongest and glanced up at his companion.

Optimus Prime looked in the direction indicated and nodded, "Approach with caution old friend, while I hope it is not a trap, Megatron is not above using such means as luring us with a false call for help for bait."

Ratchet scoffed, accepting the words of caution but merely brushing the warning to the side, "I highly doubt any Cybertronian, Autobot or Decepticon, would allow their vital systems to drop this low, which is why it is vital that we reach their location as soon as possible."

They continued up the hill, scanners hard at work and weapons hot and ready for any Decepticon threats.

Reaching the top of the hill they saw a pile of rocks the distress beacon seemed to be originating from. Circling wide around the mound, the medic and Autobot leader could see the occasional glint of sunlight reflecting off metal as something large moved in and out of the shadows.

"Primus." Ratchet whispered hoarsely as they caught sight if the two battered Decepticons taking shelter in front of the rock pile.

Breakdown winced and raised his helm to look at the two Autobots from his spot leaning against a large boulder. Meeting their stares with a tired one of his own, his mouth plates pulled into a painful and worried grimace.

"I see I finally got the right frequency, I was beginning to wonder if anyone was going to find us." He rasped, painfully pulling himself to his pedes. He glanced behind him deeper into the rocky outcrop.

"Dear Primus, what the slag happened to you two?" Ratchet exclaimed as he pushed past the ex-wreaker to kneel by the obviously more damaged red medic.

Breakdown peered worriedly over his shoulder as the CMO assessed his patient and transformers his servo into a wielder to patch up the worst of the wounds, "Don't exactly know, was sitting in the armory when everything went black and I woke up in the brig."

It was then that Optimus stepped forward, placing a dark servo on the injured mechs shoulder and gently pulled him out if the medics work space but not far enough that he could no longer see his partner, "We will discuss what has occurred to land you in this situation once both of you are in the safety of our base and fully repaired. Ratchet how long until Knock Out is stable for transport?"

"As soon as I get these wields finished, he's lost quite a bit of energon already the sooner we can get him to med-bay the better" Ratchet replied without pausing in his work, addressing Breakdown he added, "Has he woken up at all?"

Breakdown shifted restlessly behind the medic, shaking his helm even if Ratchet could not see the sad motion, "No, while we were escaping the _Nemesis_ he groaned a bit but nothing else."

Ratchet clicked worriedly, scanning the ruby red mech once more before subspacing his tools and stiffly getting to his pedes, "That's all I can do, we need to get him to med-bay so I can finish repairs and give him an energon transfer, you do those patches?" He addressed Breakdown again.

"Yeah," Breakdown nodded, ducking his helm under Ratchets scrutinizing gaze. "Knock Outs trained me to do basic field repairs."

Ratchet grunted and mumbled something too low for the other two to hear before turning to face the Prime, "Optimus we need a ground bridge back to base."

The Prime nodded and reached up to activate his comm. **Ultra Magnus we have what we came for, activate the ground bridge and prepare med-bay, we are coming back with wounded.**

The comm. crackled as the Autobot second in command replied with a professional affirmative and the green swirl of the ground bridge.

Breakdown went to stoop down and scope his injured mate into his arms, only to be stopped by Ratchets restraining servo on his upper arm while his other motioned for Optimus to take the wounded medic through.

The large blue mech tensed understandably at the thought of his smaller mate being at such close proximity to the Autobot leader, but he did trust these mechs to a degree, and his own wounds were starting to ache and sting, so he settled on following close behind through the swirling green portal and accepting the older medics help when his stiff pedes stumbled over each other as his exhaustion finally caught up to him.

Breakdown sat nervously on one of the large berths located in the Autobots base, watching as the red and white medic worked. Upon arriving at the Main room of the base, Ratchet immediately rushed the two ex-Cons through the base and into the med-bay, leaving Optimus to brief Ultra Magnus on the situation.

Other than the Commander no other 'Bot was in the base as far as he could tell. The other Autobots must have been on patrol or picking up their human pets- _Partners_, Breakdown mentally chided himself, _Autobots refer to their human companions as partners._

The navy blue mech was perfectly fine with their being no other bots inside the base. He would rather have as few mechs as possible see him and his mate like this. The quiet also gave him time to organize his jumbled processor for when Optimus was ready to debrief him.

Breakdown had offered to assist Ratchet but the medic took one look at his dark orange faceplates and sentenced him to a berth with strict orders to stay put and not move until the older mech finished repairing the younger medic and got around to fixing him.

Ratchets puzzled hum pulled Breakdown from his inner thoughts, causing him to start slightly and shift his gaze from Knock Outs stained faceplates to that of the white and red ambulance.

The medic stood by the occupied berth, frowning at the many monitors he had hooked to the red frame.

Breakdown felt his fuel tank stutter slightly before he forced a deep rush of air through his vents, halting his processor in its tracks before it could jump to conclusions.

Relatively calm again, he asked, "What are his injuries is he going to be alright?"

Ratchet looked over to the navy blue mech, taking in his downcast and worried frown and slumped posture. He sighed and turned to fully face the mech, "He has multiple fractured struts in his back and chest, as well as his right arm and servo. His left leg strut was broken in two places and parts of his outer armour on his chassis was forcible removed as well as several deep cuts, none of which severed a main energon line thankfully, but he lost enough energon that his systems forced him into a medical stasis. About three booster lines in his back were ruptured but those should not take to long for self-repair to fix," Ratchet scrubbed a servo across his face, "It's not good but he should be fine in a few days as long as he lets the wields set and not do anything that will end with him slagging himself."

Breakdown released the vent he had been holding in a relieved sigh, one servo coming up to scrub at his faceplates. "Thanks doc, that's-" Breakdown was cut off as Ratchet continued.

"What worries me is his spark," Ratchet turned back and frowned at the monitors, more specifically the spark monitor. Breakdown felt his fuel tank flutter nervously as he listened to the older mech. "While there is nothing wrong with it there is a certain energy spike that follows after the regular pulse." Ratchet shot a peculiar glance at Breakdown, "With the way his spark has adapted, I assume that you both know what that means."

The ex-'Con sighed again as the tension drained from his frame, relieved that, while anything to do with the spark was dangerous, this was not to worrisome, although his recent injuries did complicate things. "Yeah we both know, have for a while, but I don't want anyone else to know until Knocks powers back up."

Ratchet nodded, stepping closer to the berth Breakdown sat on and pulled more scanners and monitors over with him, "I still need to inform Optimus and Ultra Magnus. As Autobot Leader and second in command they should know, they can help you. And I would like to talk to the both of you about Knock Outs energon intake once he is awake. But it is your decision to make whether or not you want to tell the others."

The med-bay fell silent as Ratchet checked over scanners and began to wield Breakdowns injuries. Breakdown for his part sat quietly and complied with each request Ratchet asked of him, moving each limb in turn and telling him whether or not his joints or nerve wiring hurt. Ratchet had decided to do a full check up on both mechs, along with any repairs they needed, for his records, although he would have to finish Knock Outs once he was out of medical stasis.

Ratchet had finished Breakdowns repairs and check up and was about halfway through writing his medical reports on the two ex-'Cons when Breakdown spoke again from where he had stayed sitting on the med berth. His servos were folded limply in his lap and his helm was bowed, avoiding optic contact with the other mech, "What happens now?"

Ratchet didn't glance up from the computer terminal he was working at as he replyed, "Well now we have to go and get you debriefed with Prime and Ultra Magnus," He shut down the console and stood up with a groan, motioning to the navy mech to follow him out of the med bay and into the hall, "and then you take care of your mate, he's going to need you in the coming days."

Breakdown got up to follow the medic out of the med bay but paused at the door, slightly uncertain about leaving his mate alone in such a vulnerable state.

Ratchet seemed to sense his unease and reassured him from the hall, "Knock Out will be fine, we won't be too far and my systems are synched with his monitors. He won't be able to move without me knowing."

Breakdown nodded and, while making sure his own half of the bond was wide open and pressing against the silent, closed off other half, silently followed the medic down the hall. Echoing through the silo he could hear multiple voices coming from the main room, a mixture of high pitched human voices, musical beeping and Cybertronian vocalizers.

Approaching the entrance to the main room, Breakdown had to force down the sudden unease at seeing the other Autobots. It didn't really matter to him if they disliked that he and his mate were here, the way he saw it as long as the commanding officers and CMO accepted their presence everything was good, but it would certainly make things easier if they would accept it enough that the two ex-'Cons could recover in peace.

Ratchets servo on his shoulder stopped the ex-wreaker just before the entrance. "Listen youngling. What happens after your debriefing is completely you and your mates decision, although I doubt Optimus would want you both to leave now that the 'cons are aware of your alliance. If you do decide to leave though, I hope you would at least stay until you are both repaired enough to protect yourselves and find energon, we won't force you to stay," He spoke gruffly, his sudden ice blue optics burning holes into Breakdowns own confused red ones with their intensity. "But know this, I for one don't care what the others think if you decide to stay, you two have done great things for our cause, it has never been easy for mechs of your position to do what you have done. Whatever you had to do to keep your cover for so long must have been hard but your sparks are in the right place to have given up so much to gain so little for your efforts. But what matters now is that you both are where you belong."

The CMO gave his shoulder a squeeze before leaving the shocked mech to stand in the shadowy hall, his processor struggling to comprehend what the gruff old medics' words meant. Finally a sort of relieved peace settled over his spark, glad that the highly respected had seemingly accepted the two spies back as one of the Autobots. And if Ratchets words were true, Breakdown would not have to worry about Optimus Prime mistrusting them because of their extended 'assignment' and unexplained radio silence. They could even leave and try their own as neutrals if they really wanted.

His worries eased considerably, the large blue mech strode through the entrance and into the much brighter common room.

Breakdown was acutely aware of the sudden silence that fell upon the group as soon as he stepped into the light, and had to force himself not to turn around and flee back to the relative safety of the med-bay or transform his servos into his hammers. He felt a small seed of amusement blossom in the back of his processor despite his unease as he took in the sights of the Autobots faceplates, varying from slightly shocked surprise to rising anger and disbelief.

His amusement was soon squashed when a single voice broke the silence and the familiar clanks and whirls of transformation echoed through the room, "What the pit are you doing here?!"

* * *

**Well what do you think? Is It up to standards? Many questions have risen in this chapter I'm sure; what's wrong with knock out? Is Ratchet the Hatchet hiding something? And what is with this spy business? Stay tuned for answers (maybe) in two weeks' time! (Hopefully)**

**Thank you soo much **LadyPhaedra13**, and **jiotg** for favoriting my story, **LadyPhaedra13**, **BlueSkyScribe**, and **deathoftoast** for following my story, and **Tris Hiddelston**, and **jiotg** for reviewing. It means so much that people are enjoying this.**

**O before I forget, you have probably noticed that I changed the title for this story. Because this is going to be a part of a series I added the series title to the beginning. Ya there is two sequels planned as well as 2 1-shots to look forward to.**

**Ciao- Th31**


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